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What am I doing right?


lucerne

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For an airshow event I took my M9-P and a 135mm f/4 Elmar from the 60's. That was the only equipment option I had so I had to make do! .  Weather was constantly changing between very heavy downpours and bright blue sky.

I decided to set my camera only once in advance for the complete display.   My settings were: 

Shutter: A

ISO : Auto

Auto ISO Setup: Lens dependent (For the first time ever!)

Lens Aperture:f/5.6

Lens: Uncoded

Lens detection: Auto.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to discover later that every shot was successful and the histogram was consistently bell-shaped and centrally placed.  The ISO had always auto selected a setting within the range I set and the images of jet displays are pretty good for a short lens in what would usually have demanded 300-400mm 

 

I don't know if the "lens dependent" Auto ISO setup made the difference, but I seem to have got it just right.  

 

Note: This was a sky oriented event.  No ground events.  Safety requirements dictated that no planes were flying over spectators and were over the water and at least 300m from us.

 

Any comments about these settings are welcomed.

Edited by lucerne
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"Lens dependent" shouldn't have a made all that much of a difference since the lens was uncoded and you did not manually code in a 135mm lens. The camera had no way of "knowing" what focal length was in use.

 

I probably would have used f4 to maximize shutter speeds even further. The 135mm f4 Elmar has a pretty darn good reputation.

 

I go back & forth between manual and aperture priority with my M9 and use Aperture priority most of the time with the M262. In Aperture Priority I'm almost always in auto ISO, with the M9 maxed out at 1250 and the M262 at 3200 and shutter speeds lens dependent on both. The M262 offers a "2x focal length" shutter speed option which I have also used when I want the ultimate camera shake protection.

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Agreed, lens was not known to the camera so we can't expect the action of the camera to match the performance predicted/described in the manual....

 

If you select Lens dependent the camera only switches to a higher sensitivity if the shutter speed would fall below the 1/Focal length threshold due to poor brightness, e.g. speeds slower than 1/30 s for a 35mm lens. 

 

The lens certainly produces good images.  I took the advice of Ken Rockwell and stopped down one stop to f/5.6 to negate the possible light falloff.  

Normally, I rarely shoot above ISO 160.    But , under the Lens dependent - Auto ISO setting at the weekend, the shutter speed never fell below 1/250 and most were 1/3000 - 1/4000ths  That suited the speed of the moving subject.

I'll certainly use these settings again, but next time I'll preselect a lens from the M9 menu or may use my coding kit to do something more permanent.   Otherwise I tend to forget, and I do like to have lens data in my EXIF files.

 

 

 

Edited by lucerne
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Yes, the one lens I use a lot that's not 6 bit coded is a 21mm f2.8 ASPH that I just need to get off my duff and get it in to Leica to be coded. I almost always wind up forgetting right away to change the camera lens coding setting back to auto and the next 6-8 files after changing the lens show the 21 in the EXIF data and I kick myself every time.

 

There's been a few times I've left the 21 at home and opted for the 28/2.8 ASPH as my widest option just because it is coded.

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